An early warning system could identify patients with sepsis earlier and improve outcomes, according to a study published in Nature Medicine. Roy James Adams, PhD, and colleagues examined the association between patient outcomes and provider interaction with a deployed sepsis alert system, the Targeted Real-time Early Warning System (TREWS), among 590,736 patients monitored by TREWS across five hospitals; the analysis focused on 6,877 patients with sepsis identified by the alert before the start of antibiotic therapy. Patients in this group whose alert was confirmed by a clinician within 3 hours had lower in-hospital mortality (adjusted absolute reduction, 3.3%; adjusted relative reduction, 18.7%), organ failure, and length of stay compared with those whose alert was not confirmed within 3 hours, after adjustment for patient presentation and severity. Patients flagged as high risk had larger improvements in mortality rate (adjusted absolute reduction, 4.5%). “Our findings indicate the potential for high-precision alert systems to identify sepsis patients early and improve patient outcomes,” Dr. Adams and colleagues wrote.
